Vinylmation Q&A - July 2011

I'm excited about The Lion King [blind boxed] series coming out in August at Disney Stores. What other movie do you think they'll make a series of? -- vinylmaniac

Lion King makes sense as a series because Disney is releasing quite a few new products at the Disney Store to promote the film. For those who are unaware, the movie is being re-released in movie theaters in 3D later this year, along with a much-hyped Blu-Ray release. If Disney makes additional Vinylmation series focusing on just one movie, I would guess they will choose movies that they are looking to promote for one reason or another.

If series choices were up to me, I would suggest they release both a Beauty and the Beast series and a Little Mermaid series. Both movies have a lot of great characters that would probably translate well to vinyl form (aside from the humans, which always look a bit off to me). Of course, there's always Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs! Over half of that series would be the dwarfs alone!

Besides the fact that all three are great movies, each movie will be featured prominently in the Fantasyland Expansion currently under construction in WDW. The Mermaid ride is already operational at Disney's California Adventure.

How do you display your vinyls? What do you do with the boxes? We're still pretty new to collecting, but space is an issue. - Dana

I tend to group my vinyls together by character or theme, e.g., all of the Epcot vinyls in one area. I also prefer to display them with other related collectibles, such as the Tree of Life 9" vinyl with hand-carved wooden animals from Animal Kingdom. I don't usually keep each series together. For the time being, I keep some of mine on display on top of and in bookcases, but space is always an issue for me as well. This is particularly true with the 9" vinyls. I still don't have all of my vinyls displayed.

If you want to display your vinyls in a case, you have a few options. Disney originally made official display cases that held either a single 3" vinyl or twelve 3" vinyls. The problem is, they were incredibly expensive and have since been discontinued. They do pop up on eBay from time to time, usually at a large markup.

There are a couple of other great display options for the 3" vinyls that won't break the bank. The Container Store has small plastic display boxes with risers that you can use to hold twelve 3" vinyls. These are inexpensive and don't take up a lot of room. They have drawbacks, though. The risers are elevated in such a way that does not allow you to see all of the vinyls in rows two and three. Those vinyls are partially obscured by the vinyls on the rows below them.

If you want to (mostly) see the entire front side of every 3" vinyl you own, and you use a display case, your best bet is probably the shot glass case holder from Michael's crafts store. That display case happens to be the perfect size to hold 3" vinyls, and you can fit 18 of them in the individual slots. It has an opening door on the front of the case, so it is not difficult to take things out or put things in. Some of the vinyls on the side will be partially obscured by the door's paneling, but it is still a much better option than the plastic case with risers, in my opinion. They are more expensive than the plastic cases, though. Watch for Michael's 50% off sales, and you can get two for the price of one.

In terms of boxes, I do save all of mine. I have no intention of selling my collection, but I also realize that you never know when you might have to sell some collectibles for space or for financial reasons. The best way to save the 3" boxes and save space is to collapse them until they are flat. All you need to do is open the end of the box that you didn't open in the first place, and then it will collapse flat. Some glue or tape can be used to return it to box form, if you ever wanted to do that. The 9" boxes are trickier because they involve additional cardboard inside the box, plastic wires, etc.

Technically, these boxes can also be collapsed, but to me, it isn't worth the trouble. If space is an issue, being extra selective about your 9" purchases is imperative.

Stuff Not to Skip

• Disney's Vinylmation
  http://eventservices.disney.go.com/static/vinylmation

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